I've been meaning to submit this sketch of Aristoteles and Mitchell for a while, but I wanted to wait until I was settled in my new house in Jacumba, nestled the high desert of San Diego County. It was done on March 2, 2009. The study sketch and tonal notes were rendered between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm PST. The final sketch, consisting of applications of various densities of dots created by Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pens, #1, 2, 3 and 4, took a few hours to complete. The upside of this time spent was that I was able to do this inside with warmth, good lighting and frequent sips from my mug of hot chocolate.

Aristoteles is an Eratosthenian aged (3.1 billion to 1.1 billion years old) crater located in the Northeast Quadrant of the Moon. At 53 km, it is very close to the size of it's younger brother Copernicus at 56 km, however, it lacks an extensive set of rays, a discriminating factor for younger Copernician (1.1 billion years to present) aged craters. The glacis around Aristoteles is arrayed with radial lineations of ejecta. These extend into the surrounding terrain for over a hundred kilometers from the craters center. On the southwest flank there appeared to be areas where melt had pooled. Little 31 kilometer Mitchell on Aristoteles' eastern slope is the older of the two, an Imbrium aged crater (between 3.65 and 3.2 billion years old). It seemed surprising to me that it had survived the Aristoteles impact.

How nice to have you back sketching the old moon. This is a wonderful sketch and it is really impressive that you can create all the different tones and shades with a careful distribution of dark dots of different sizes. Move over George Seurat and make room for the kraterkid.

We are all very happy to have your outstanding lunar observations posted on the forum once again. Your fine lunar renderings and informative reports have always been appreciated. I am happy to hear that you have settled down in the high desert of San Diego County (hopefully far away from those nasty fires). I hope that you enjoy many wonderful observations from your new home in the future.

Your observation of Aristoteles and Mitchell is excellent. Your observation displays excellent depth and shadow. The steppes of Aristoteles are well rendered as well.

Very nice rendering It was seeing your sketches here accidentally last summer that inspired me to take a closer look at the moon and to begin sketching it in its entirety. I recommend the Astronomy Sketching book to everyone.

I like your approach of the stippling effect. It opens up some new ideas for my future sketch work.

Carlos, your sketching and observation reports have always been an endless spring of inspiration for me, thank you my friend!

Mark, the first time I saw your lunar sketchwork I was stunned by your talent, outstanding in every way! Thanks so much.

Hey Rony, thanks, this technique requires time and patience but the end result can be visually exciting. The skies are almost always clear in Jacumba, I'd say the transparency averages 8-10 on most nights. Seeing may be a another story, I just don't have enough experience here yet.

The stippling technique is a very useful one as exhibited by Rich, Frank, and other observers on the forum (and around the world). I instantly think of the famous British selenographer Harold Hill who used this technique so impressively. I have provided a few links below which show the technique well.

Thanks Dee! So good to be around when you're online as well. One of the things I find so delightful about your sketchwork is the exciting experiments you undertake. They are a constant source of inspiration for all of us here.

Thank you both for the kind words and the very warm welcome back. I'm so impressed and excited by the quality of sketches that are being posted by all the folks here. It's great to see the popularity of sketching among the amateur astronomy community. But it is even more exciting to be part of that community of sketchers here at CN.